Message from the President
President’s Message — Our Children, Our Future
On behalf of everyone at Partners Bank, I would like to congratulate the high school graduates of 2024 for their achievement. Your high school graduation is the pinnacle of your childhood education, and the road to reaching that destination had a lot of twists and turns. The times you sacrificed having fun with your friends so you could study, finish a project, or hit a word count on an essay weren’t all for nothing. Your high school diploma is what your steadfast dedication to your future has helped you accomplish. While it symbolizes the end of your childhood, it is also the beginning of your adulthood as you either pursue higher education, explore avenues of earning an income, or doing both simultaneously.
To help those of you who are choosing the road of higher education, Partners Bank created our scholarship program, which provides a total of about $24,000 in aggregate scholarships. Every year, high schools in the communities we serve select recent graduates to be awarded the Partners Bank Scholarship. Along with the recognition of being outstanding students, scholarship recipients will also receive $1,000 to help them further their education. The winners of the Partners Bank Scholarship will be announced at the Convocation Awards of each high school in early June. My warmest congratulations go out to all the graduates of 2024! I have no doubt that you will continue to achieve great things.
While we are happy to support the lives of these young adults in their next chapter, Partners Bank would like to extend a hand to those still in grade school. During the entire month of June, our Sanford, South Sanford, and Springvale locations are collecting school supplies for Stuff the Bus, a program by the Sanford Strong Coalition. The school supplies will be distributed to students who need assistance purchasing backpacks and school supplies for their first day of school. Worrying about the need for school supplies pulls the attention away from learning. Our donations to Stuff the Bus will alleviate that distraction and allow the students to focus on their education.
Behind the sea and mountain depicted in the Partners Bank logo are folks who genuinely care about children, the future of our community, nation, and world. While we are celebrating the wonderful successes of these children and young adults, it is important to remember that those successes are not easily attained. Sometimes, those successes are at the cost of their mental and emotional health. At Partners Bank, we believe it is important to support the mental health of these young people as they navigate the world.
To help in that endeavor, in March, Mortgage Consultant Alison Fitting selected the organization Yellow Tulip Project (YTP) to be awarded the Employee Donation of the Month. Based in Portland, YTP is a non-profit organization on a mission to smash the stigma associated with mental illness and to remind people that there is help and hope for those living with mental illness. The founder, Julia Hansen, was inspired to create YTP after tragically losing her two best friends to suicide when she was in high school and was simultaneously dealing with her own depression. It breaks our hearts to lose young ones, which is why we’re proud to have donated to YTP to help this worthy cause.
In May, our team at the Partners Bank Kingston Branch became a sponsor of Austin17House’s Masquerade Ball. This ball directly benefits their Fight Club 17 program, a fee-free program that provides a supportive environment for young people to progress in their recovery and healing impacted by addiction. Our donation will support the basic needs and supplies to allow Fight Club 17 to continue to offer our youth a safe place to drop in, make friends, and get a free meal. We hope this sponsorship shows the youth at Austin17House that Partners Bank cares about their mental health.
Also in May, Residential Underwriter Donald MacDougall selected the Sanford BackPack Program to be awarded the Employee Donation of the Month. The Sanford BackPack Program is another program created by the Sanford Strong Coalition and sends students home for the weekend with a backpack full of nutritious and easy-to-prepare food. Experiencing food insecurity is another distraction that pulls attention away from education. Our donation to the Sanford BackPack Program will help students maintain a balanced diet so they can return to school on Monday ready to focus on learning.
The future is in the hands of our children. It’s crucial that we provide them with the tools they need to succeed, thus ensuring the success of the world. At Partners Bank, our commitment to caring for the children in our community will never change.
Blaine Boudreau